8 ms·
Once the world's largest, the Pennsylvania Hotel goes 'poof' before our eyes
- joemazerino 3y agoI remember at HOPE when the lobby flooded from a downpour. Felt it was odd considering how many floors it had. Gross place at it's state but so much damn history.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y agoAmong the odder moments came when a government bacteriologist named Frank Olson plunged to his death from the 10th floor in 1953. It was later revealed that he had been slipped LSD as part of an illegal mind-control program overseen by the C.I.A. Seventy years later, the circumstances remain murky. I live in the most [ADJECTIVE] country anywhere.
- tobinfricke 3y agoSubject of a mini-series dramatization by Errol Morris https://youtu.be/b01DL8DTUGM?si=3-vGNv4xjGFtuNIo https://youtu.be/b01DL8DTUGM?si=3-vGNv4xjGFtuNIo
- mc32 3y agoIIRC Ted Kazinsky was part of a similar or same program -mind control ultra.
- chillingeffect 3y agoIt was an aggressive researcher's interrogation program consisting of constant belittlement. :( Ted was young at Harvard and probably didnt have the wherewithall to refuse or understand what the effects could be.
- readthenotes1 3y ago[flagged]
- marricks 3y agoThe pissing contests in terms of who is worse usually feels like a defense of our country. (I live in the US) Perhaps we should be most critical of our own country as presumably its where we have the most control and blame.
- ericmcer 3y agoWhat bar would you judge a society by besides other societies? Idealized futuristic utopias? I don't really agree we should be most critical of our own society. We should be critical of the society that deserves the most criticism.
- ImPostingOnHN 3y ago> What bar would you judge a society by besides other societies? Idealized futuristic utopias? Yes, obviously. You have an ideal of where you want to be, and you strive towards it, knowing that you may never get there, but that steps towards it are good. How else would we judge our infinite efforts as a citizen improving our country, and progress over time thereof? Criticizing others and sitting back and feeling good about ourselves for doing nothing but at least we're better off (for the moment) than some hypothetic far-off country that exists under different circumstances? > I don't really agree we should be most critical of our own society. We should be critical of the society that deserves the most criticism. I don't really agree that we should focus criticism on where it's unlikely to effect change. Criticism is, at best, a means to an end, and at worst, an attack aimed at others to distract and avoid change ourselves. If we aren't actively working towards that end, our criticism is useless or counterproductive. In the case of a country other than our own, actively working towards that end is unlikely, so the criticism being useless or counterproductive is likely.
- Retric 3y ago> How else would you aim your infinite efforts as a citizen of your country? The problem with aiming for utopia is you don’t understand the problems. People in 1100 couldn’t really conceive of an obesity epidemic and the founding fathers didn’t understand the issues with political parties or lifetime nomination to the Supreme Court. Instead you can understand the local situation and aim for something slightly better. Rather than trying to have nationalized healthcare system what if we lower the age for social security eligibility to 60/55 or add kids under 18 etc.
- semiquaver 3y agohttps://archive.ph/Cx6WM https://archive.ph/Cx6WM
- notthemessiah 3y agoI know this place as the namesake and longtime hosting location of the HOPE Conference. I will forever remember it.
- alienasa 3y agoI stayed here in approximately 2010, because it was the cheapest hotel near Madison Square Garden, and I will forever remember it as the filthiest hotel I've ever been in. I slept fully clothed on top of the bed with my coat for a blanket.
- glitchcrab 3y agoI also stayed there around the same time; my overriding memory is how grimy the bathroom was. It looked like it had never had a proper clean since it was first decorated.
- gnatman 3y agoI too stayed there in 2010 to be close to MSG. My friends and I knew it was a shithole, and were sending each other terrible TripAdvisor reviews for laughs. Buried a dozen pages in, one review offered instructions for getting up on the roof- go to a certain floor, go into a certain housekeeping door, and take the stairs in the back. We followed the instructions and found an incredible and private view of the city. Fun night!
- toast0 3y agoLiving on SEO from their history... PEnnsylvania 6-5000
- djmips 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEnnsylvania_6-5000 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PEnnsylvania_6-5000
- lucas_membrane 3y agoBefore that (1919-1930), it was PENnsylvania 5000.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- shon 3y agoYep, I stayed there in 2000 to attend HOPE 2000. Traveled with Sir Dystic, Lumi and some other cDc kids. Parties were fun. cDc put on a great show.
- sp332 3y agoHere's a two-hour session of HOPE attendees telling stories about crazy things that happened there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Tofimmga8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46Tofimmga8
- xhkkffbf 3y agoThat was a great conference. HOPE filled the space nicely. It was a good match.
- StanislavPetrov 3y agoHOPE 2000 was a blast, but the place was already a wreck, even by then. Pity to see it go instead of being properly renovated.
- anigbrowl 3y agoPeople are always fretting over the low availability and high cost of housing, yet here's a building with 2200 rooms and all the infrastructure needed to service them. It's all so tiresome.
- MomoXenosaga 3y ago[flagged]
- ijhuygft776 3y agoLobbyists ?
- CPLX 3y agoI mean they’re going to replace it with a much larger building. What are you complaining about exactly?
- ceejayoz 3y agoFew of the "much larger building"s going up recently in NYC are high-density, affordable living space.
- epistasis 3y agoFew new cars are highly affordable. We need a continuous supply of new housing, or rebuilding, and in particular NYC should always be building up up up. There are three ways to deal with shortages: waiting lists, market pricing out the lowest incomes, and building enough new housing to let everyone who wants to live there live their. Only the last option, build build build, is the least bit fair. Every other option is exclusionary and destructive to community.
- CPLX 3y agoLiterally no part of the building being discussed has ever contained housing for NYC residents.
- 3y ago
- creaghpatr 3y agoRIP. I stayed here the first time I visited NYC, mainly on account of the location and price. It felt enormous and check-in was pretty chaotic given the amount of people checking in but it felt like an authentic intro to the city. That said, it was pretty grimy. Don't blame them for tearing it down, it's way too big to preserve as some kind of historical boutique hotel.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- cypherpunks01 3y agoDid anyone else ever explore the huge multi-level basements of the hotel? In the final sub-basement, I remember there was a passageway that connected into one of the subway tunnels way down there.
- unixhero 3y agoLike the Fairmont Toronto has
- throwawaaarrgh 3y agoMany memories from this hotel as a teen visiting NYC for the first time. Splitting a room with people I'd only met online. Meeting Jello Biafra in the lobby. Volunteering for HOPE. Trying out a Segway for the first time on a level with floor-to-ceiling windows. Standing on the roof with friends, taking in the city skyline, glancing over at the open login of the NT4.0 Workstation running the elevator motor controls. Walking the back passageways, inspecting ancient NYTel/NYNEX cross boxes, taking the giant service elevators up and down, walking through the abandoned floors covered in dust. When I came back as an adult, this hotel was the cheapest room in the city, and it showed. Run down and falling apart. It's extremely hard to turn a profit on a hotel this large; the maintenance is constant and expensive, and if you skimp on anything (like shuttering a few floors) they just get worse over time. There was absolutely a time when it was a money maker, but that time is gone. I just wish they could have converted it into apartments. It would have taken a big investment, but I think the city owed it to both the building's history, and the people trying to "make it" in the big apple.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- doctorhandshake 3y agoHad the misfortune of tech directing a conference in a ballroom there once. The distro was literally 3-phase cams coming through a hole busted in the drywall, patched into a residential-style breaker panel which was strapped to a furniture dolly with romex as the ‘strap’ and leaned against the wall, front of house, in the ballroom. You can imagine how the rest of the tech was. Worst gig of my life.
- mikesickler 3y agoFun to learn that the hotel and phone number inspired the movie Transylvania 6-5000!